Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) and Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) have achieved what they claim is a significant milestone on the 5G development journey with the successful completion of over-the-air (OTA) 5G NR data calls in both the mmWave and sub-6GHz spectrum bands. The calls, which were compliant with the global 3GPP 5G NR Release 15 specification in NSA (Non-Standalone) mode, were completed at Nokia's 5G center of excellence in Oulu, Finland, using commercially available AirScale basestations and a smartphone-sized test device powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon(TM) X50 5G modem.

UK altnet CityFibre has embarked on a "5G-ready" small-cell infrastructure pilot in the London borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, with Arqiva supplying the on-street equipment and CityFibre laying a new 15km fiber network to provide backhaul capacity. Hammersmith & Fulham is home to around 180,000 people, packed into an area of just 6.3 square miles: That's a lot of potential data demand. In October CityFibre announced a £2.5 billion (US$3.2 billion) investment program that it hopes will see it reach 5 million homes with full-fiber broadband. (See Eurobites: UK's CityFibre Announces $2.5B FTTH Investment Plan.)

Sky , the UK-based pay-TV heavyweight, has had its preliminary injunction against the use of the "Skyworth" brand on TVs in Europe reaffirmed by the EU trademark court. The judge found that the use of the Skyworth brand was likely to cause "consumer confusion and damage to Sky's brand." Sky was awarded damages as part of the judgement.

Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT)'s mobile network in Germany has come out on top in a test carried out by trade magazine Connect in conjunction with network test specialist P3 Communications. The compilers of the results relied on driving- and walking-based test data as well as crowdsourced analyses.

Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) has renamed its Global Enterprise unit as "Vodafone Business" as part of "brand refresh" that, according to the operator's marketing wonks, addresses the fact that all of its customers are losing sleep over the same thing -- digital transformation. The wonks at Eurobites Towers are starting to think that the term "digital transformation" is due for a brand refresh…

Norway's Telenor Group (Nasdaq: TELN) has got in early with its predictions for 2019, identifying seven technology trends to watch out for. They range from the depressing (algorithm-assisted "deepfake" news) to the strangely reassuring (the return of flip-phones to help counter the issue of excessive screen-time), taking in the emergence of "5G islands" and fully fledged industrial IoT along the way. See this release for the full crystal-ball bulletin.